Beguile
Verb.
Pronunciation and accent: bIgaIl.
Etymology: it is analysable into be- (intensive prefix) + guile (= deceit).
Preterite tense: beguiled.
Preterite participle: beguiled.
Present participle: beguiling.
Transitively:
First definition: to make (someone) the object of a guile; to cause (a person) to believe what is false, by means of words or otherwise.
Synonyms: to delude, deceive, cheat, impose on, trick.
It may be translated by ingannare, in Italian; engañar, in Spanish; tromper, in French.
[…] every day he greeted her with the same fond smile, and beguiled her with the same hopeful talk.
Mary Braddon… Charlotte's Inheritance
[…] the wicked chief was enamoured of my mistress, and, I doubt not, beguiled her with feigned tales, saying that Queen Zalia was near her end.
Sara Coleridge… Phantasmion
The French emperor supposing that they merely wished to lull him into a false security, beguiled them with artful compliments.
Samuel Maunder… The Treasury of History
Second definition: to induce (any one) to do something, by guile.
***With an infinitive, to signify the action to which the deluded is induced:
[…] this is not a spot to be alone with a youth of this graceless fellow's nature ; even though he may have beguiled you to love him dearly.
Pierce Egan… Paul Jones
I have two — nay, three good reasons for going : first, that a beautiful young lady has already beguiled me to stay longer than I should; secondly, that a pleasant old gentleman might beguile me to stay still longer.
George Payne… Leonora d'Orco
"In olden and ancient times the Laird of Clyth went over to Denmark, and, being at the court of Elsineur, counterfeited, by the help of a handsome person, and a fine elocution, the style and renown of the most prosperous gentleman in all Caithness, by which he beguiled a Prince of Copenhagen to give him his daughter in marriage.
John Galt… The Entail
***With the preposition into, followed by a noun or gerund, to signify the action, state or condition caused by means of a trick:
[…] you must not beguile me into neglecting my duties.
Jane Mackenzie… Private Life
[The counsellor] was trying to beguile her into criminating herself, for the sake of employing her evidence against the luckless admiral.
Agnes Strickland… Queens of England
[…] his voice grew really kind, for he wished to beguile her into good-humour, and he mumbled the last words with his lips touching her cheek.
John Banim… The Denounced
I beguiled her into talk.
Elizabeth Gaskell… The accursed race
[I] first beguiled her into mounting her pony one beautiful morning, to ride over the fields with Gerald, Miss Peterson, and me by her side.
Sarah Ellis… Pictures…
***With the prepositions to or into, followed by the noun of the place where someone is enticed:
From the dance, he beguiled her to the garden, and she was pleased to be so beguiled.
William Simms… Katharine Walton
Helen did not suspect the secret purpose for which Mr. Mortimer had beguiled her to the Rectory.
Jane Mackenzie… Private Life
It was into the reticulations of one of these nets that our talkative guide beguiled us.
Joseph Bullar… A Winter in the Azores
Third definition: to dispossess (someone) of something by guile or by means of a trick.
Synonyms: bereave, deprive, cheat out of
***With of or out of, followed by the noun of the thing trickily obtained:
[…] the plan of beguiling him of his money.
Mary Griffith… Camperdown
[…] the woman was exceeding angry, because the Fryer had subtilly beguiled her of her meat.
The Monthly Mirror, vol. 16
Supposing, very honestly, that a soldier was a likely person to inform him where he could most advantageously procure the article, he accosted one in the street, who conducted him to his own quarters, and there, having beguiled him out of five dollars on pretence of selling him a gun and equipments, set up a hue and cry, that there was a rebel purchasing king's arms of a king's soldier.
Caleb Snow… A History of Boston
***Hence, metaphorically: to induce (someone) to something by means of a trick, as if by cheating out of it:
[…] Evelyn has linked herself to me, insensibly beguiled me of my love, and made me forget my own desolateness.
Anna Mowatt… Evelyn
[…] we should rejoice if we could even beguile them of a smile.
Edward Hook… Cousin Geoffrey
How often on summer evenings, when he lay sick in the little chamber of the woodland grange, had she unclosed the casement to admit the fragrant breeze, and bid him listen to the vespers of the birds, and playfully endeavoured to beguile him of a smile, by imitating with her sweet voice their mellow notes behind his curtain.
The Lady's magazine
Fourth definition: to cause (somebody) to be heedless of something unpleasant or unsuitable, by means of a trick
Synonym: to divert
***With the preposition from, or of, followed by a noun, to signify diversion from something unpleasant:
Though I had long won these facts from Billy, I had never known him to play his game so openly before. But when I mentioned the thing to Solon, thinking to beguile him from his trouble, I found him more interested than I had thought he could be; for Solon knew Billy as well as I did.
Harry Wilson… The Boss of Little Arcady
Betha beguiled him from his usual sad pensiveness, to take an interest in the various employments exhibited in rural life.
Jane Porter, Anna Maria Porter... Coming out
I sat and listened as long as I could to the efforts my companion made to beguile me of my uneasiness.
Mrs. Farren… Boston Common
[The buzzard hawks] never could be approached within reach of a gun, or induced into a trap […]. To beguile them of their suspicions, I used to leave the most tempting baits about the woods and fields, to try to get them to take a dead quarry, and disabuse them of suspicion.
John Carleton… The Sporting review
Still her child beguiled her of her grief.
Godey's Magazine, Volume 12
He had, originally, purposed visiting Mr. Tyrold before he set out, and conversing with him upon the state of danger in which he thought his daughter; but his tenderness for her feelings, during his last adieu, had beguiled him of this plan, lest it should prove painful, injurious, or inauspicious to her own views or designs in breaking to her friends their breach.
Fanny Burney… Camilla
Fifth definition: to cause (someone) not to be bored, by means of a funny trick. Hence, (metaphorically) to cause (something) not to be tedious, as if by a trick
Synonyms: to while away, amuse
The long train was slackening speed and two whistles rang shrilly through the roar of wheels when Miss Barrington laid down the book with which she had beguiled her journey of fifteen hundred miles, and rose from her seat in a corner of the big first-class car.
Harold Bindloss… Winston of the Prairie
Beside the provisions lay the flute, whose notes had lately been […] by the lonely watcher to beguile a tedious hour.
Thomas Hardy… Far from the Madding Crowd…
We got under way with, and for many days, without any other incident to beguile the monotony of our course than the occasional meeting with some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which we were bound.
Edgar Poe
Intransitively: to practice a beguilement; use a wile
Words derived from guile: beguilement, beguiler, beguiling, beguilingly, beguileful, beguiled, guileful, guilefully, guilefulness, guileless, guilelessly, guilessness, unguileful,
